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Gift Cards India completes 1st Year of Operations; Reports over $1 million in revenues; Malur Narayan from TCS joins Board of Advisors

Giftcardsindia.in, an online portal dedicated to selling gift cards online, has reported the completion of its first year of operations. The company, which has gifting options of over 160 brands, has reported over $1 million in sales with over 60K cards sold.

Co-Founder & CEO, Gift Cards India

Speaking on the completion of operations of the first year, Cory York, Co-founder and CEO, GiftcardsIndia, said, “We had a huge demand from our 160 brand network to move from paper to plastic & digital gift cards.”

The company which sells gifting options as per category, recipient, city, occasions, price, etc. has tie-ups with leading players such as American Express, UCB, Big Bazaar, Café Coffee Day etc.

The company offers free delivery for orders above Rs.1,000 and also offers the consumer the option of e-gift cards of leading e-tailers such as OyeGirl, E-Gully, Ferns & Petals, 99 labels etc. As per the company, they’ve turned profitable within their first year of operation without any funding from outside.

Co-Founder & COO, Gift Cards India

Speaking on the partnership with American Express, Firoz Khan, Co-founder and COO, GiftcardsIndia, said, “The Amex Card since its introduction to the GCI Network has been a real hot seller. A successful proof of concept for the prepaid industry on how to solve their distribution problem.”

Speaking about the future plans and next steps, Cory said, “We are now about to launch a cutting edge technology platform to allow retailers to securely and efficiently setup and manage their plastic and mobile gift card programs. With this offering, combined with our distribution, we are getting closer to being a full circle gift card provider.” Giftcardsindia.in is among the few places in India to buy the American Express prepaid card. It is the first prepaid card in India that can be used for online purchases as well as offline.

President, GPO, American Express

Speaking with Economic Times earlier, Alpesh Chokshi, President, Global Payment Options, American Express , had said, “As per our estimates, the overall gifting market in India is more than $30 billion annually. According to Global Prepaid Exchange, the market for prepaid gift cards and vouchers in India is sized at $403.8 million in 2011, with a 30% growth rate. So India is a very crucial market for us.”

During its journey, the company won the award for eSparks hottest e-commerce start-up this year and is in the process of launching its mobile gift card shopping as an Iphone app and html 5 mobile web store. The company is also in the final stages of launching a facility where consumers can order gift cards over the phone. The company already has an online live chat facility to help consumers who need information about the products or to select the right gifting option.

The company also appointed Malur Narayan – VP at TCS – to its Board of Advisors, where he joins Sankarson Banerjee – former CEO of FutureBazaar.com and current CIO of IIFL – and Virendra Chhatbar, who is also a former CFO Future Bazaar.

The company has won rave reviews from its institutional customers, such as Tradus, West Side Trent Ltd. and the Future Group, among others.

Gift Cards India, is a production of SocialLinked Digital Commerce, which was founded in 2010 and also operates Power Stores, a SaaS service provider based out of Goa.

The company competes with many direct and indirect retailers in the gifting solutions space, such as GiftBig.Com, American Express Gift Cards, Archies Ltd. (launched in 1979; among the earliest to launch its online platform in 2000; has revenues of over Rs.140 Crores with a 50% share of India’s greetings card market) etc.